Tipperary 3-27; Cork 1-18
Pundits, bookies and the hurling world in general are in a state of shock this week at the Tipperary second-half surge and the Cork second half collapse that led to a Premier 15-point win after being six down at the break in Croke Park on Sunday.
Tipp natives the world over are entitled to walk on air as only they gave their players any hope of living with the red-hot Cork attack which had beaten them badly twice this year - in the league final and the Munster round robin series.
Manager Liam Cahill sent his side out to compete and while they did that manfully in the first-half, a magnificent goal in injury time from Shane Barrett saw Pat Ryan’s charges go into the dressing-room six points to the good 1-16 to 0-13.
Even the most ardent of blue and gold fans must have feared a Cork avalanche on the changeover - instead it was the huge support bedecked in red which watched open-mouthed as Tipp totally dominated play - scoring 3-14 to a miserly two points from their opponents in all of that moiety.
This was a script that any decent producer would have rejected for being too corny because quite frankly no one could believe that raging favorites Cork would raise only a brace of white flags while the winners assumed a game from a higher plain as they rained in scores from every angle - with veteran John McGrath on 2-2 and teenager Darragh McCarthy on 1-13 leading the previous teak-tough loser’s defense on a merry dance.
In the first half Tipp played above themselves but also let themselves down by shooting an array of long-range wides. The feeling was that these misses (nine to Cork’s five) would come back to haunt them - and when a Tipp pass out of defense was intercepted and led to Barrett’s goal in the last second of the first half, that feeling redoubled.
Cork were now on the cusp of ending a 20-year famine in the Liam MacCarthy stakes or so we thought.
Tipp emerged full of energy, and went after every ball as if their lives depended on it. They got over the disappointment of having a goal disallowed first-half to find the net three times in the second - with McGrath showing nerves of steel to return a saved point from Patrick Collins to the net and then showed brilliant wrist work to flick home a long delivery despite the presence of the goalkeeper and defender Eoin Downey.
The latter was on a yellow for persistently fouling the wily McGrath in the first half and when he brought down his direct opponent to concede a penalty midway through the second half, it left ref Liam Gordon with no alternative but to flash a second yellow, or red to the Cork full-back.
By then Tipp had turned the game around from six points down to six up - shades of Offaly against Limerick in 1994 - but they had more time and more scores to dispense before the aforementioned Gordon sounded the long whistle. By then they had outscored their opponents by 21 points to win by a handsome 15.
In essence, Cork’s big three in attack - Brian Hayes, Alan Connolly and Declan Dalton were held to a point each - and it was left to the outside line of the lively Diarmuid Healy with three point, Barrett with 1-3 and the evergreen Patrick Hogan with four points to stand up and be counted on the day.
Further out, Darragh Fitzgibbon weighed in with two points from the middle but it was noticeable that all the stars from the semi-final, including his midfielder partner Tim O’Mahony and the half-backs, were struggling to make an impact on the game.
Instead of those players managing to lift their standards in the second-half, they found themselves on the back foot to such an extent that long before the final whistle the scoring threat of the inside three was long dismissed as the Tipp defense grew with every passing minute.
It was as if Cork ran out of ammo as Tipp powered on with an insatiable appetite not just to win balls but to keep scoring goals and points. Talk about putting your foot on the Cork jugular…. They didn’t allow any oxygen into the losers’ system in those marvelous 39 minutes (there was found minutes of added time on the day).
Ultimately while saluting the sheer bravery and daring of Tipp to go man to man in the second half after holding by employing a first half sweeper, one could not but feel sadness for Cork.
This was especially so for 37 year old veteran Hoggie (Patrick Horgan) who must find another year in his legs if he is not to hang up his hurley having never won a senior hurling Celtic Cross. Also Pat Ryan has proven himself a special person in both sporting and personal adversity and most neutrals would hope to see both complete the journey to the Holy Grail before they give up their respective positions.
Afterwards there was more than a little disbelief in the Tipperary ranks at what they had managed to achieve.
John McGrath cited the words “unity and belief” as the reason for the team’s transition from also-rans to champions.
“Twelve months, it flew by, but it's a long way we've come in 12 months. We were long-gone this time 12 months ago - it's more like, 15 or 16 months.
"It's hard to put words or describe what exactly changed, it's not one single magic thing or anything. The talent and that was always there, it was just about fine-tuning and my God we've gone from strength to strength as the year has gone on. That second half was... oh my God," he explained.
“We built a real squad unity, a real belief as the year went on. Everyone was out on their feet there at the end but lads were still throwing everything in the way just to get over the line.”
Winning manager Liam Cahill declared: “The honesty of that group of players, I never doubted them. I know we're all a little sensitive after what happened last year and some of the criticism was probably deserved.
“But I knew the quality of these men, got in among them and started supporting them better and got them believing again. I knew we'd have a great opportunity to lift the spirits of the Tipperary people again," said Cahill.
“I really thought when Clare came back level with us in Ennis. You know, a knockout championship Munster hurling match. Three minutes to go, the All-Ireland champions peg you back from being 12 points up.
“Another team would have gone away, this team didn't and we got back out of there still contesting the championship. I thought we really turned a corner that day."
Tipperary: R Shelly (0-1); R Doyle (0-1), E Connolly (0-1), M Breen; C Morgan, R Maher (capt), B O'Mara; W Connors (0-1), C Stakelum (0-1); J Morris (0-1), A Ormond (0-1), S O’Farrell; D McCarthy (1-13, 0-9fs), J McGrath (2-2), J Forde (0-2) Subs: S Kennedy for O’Mara (50), A Tynan for Morgan (56), N McGrath for O’Farrell (60), O O'Donoghue for Ormond (66), D Stakelum for C Stakelum (66).
Cork: P Collins; N O'Leary (0-1), E Downey, S O'Donoghue; C Joyce, R Downey (capt), M Coleman; T O'Mahony, D Fitzgibbon (0-2); D Healy (0-3), S Barrett (1-4), D Dalton (0-1f); P Horgan (0-4, 0-3f), A Connolly (0-1), B Hayes (0-1) Subs: S Harnedy (0-1)for Dalton (44), D Cahalane for Healy (56), C Lehane for Horgan (58), S Kingston for Connolly (64), T O'Connell for O’Mahony (67).
Ref: L Gordon (Galway).
GAA RESULTS & FIXTURES
All-Ireland SHC final
Tipperary 3-27 Cork 1-18
Ladies All-Ireland SFC semi-finals
Dublin 3-14 Galway 0-14
Meath 2-12 Kerry 1-9
Saturday, July 26
Camogie All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-finals
Cork v Waterford
Galway v Tipperary
Sunday 27 July
All-Ireland SFC final
Kerry v Donegal
